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Article Summary
Dave Ulrich, through his article tries to demonstrate the growing importance of the role of human resource managers for the overall success of any organization. Human resource issues have become central to business deliberations, surfacing in boardrooms where executives plan and in conference rooms where managers act. Many companies human-resources managers have been branded as "incompetent, value-sapping support staff" useful only for shuffling paperwork and dealing with red tape. It's time to destroy the stereotype and unleash HR's full potential. HR should be focused on results. Human-resources managers must start doing "the real work" of companies: improving customer service and increasing shareholder value. The article aims at helping HR managers excel at work and showcases the ever changing role of human resources in not only today's workplace, but tomorrow's as well. HR has never been more necessary. The fundamental HR issues revolve around efforts to achieve organizational excellence through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork and reengineering which in turn are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat their people. The complex business scenario today requires focus on outcomes rather than traditional HR activities. HR should be dened not by what it does but by what it delivers. HR can help deliver organizational excellence in the following four ways: First, HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution. Second, it should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed, delivering administrative efficiency while quality is maintained. Third, it should become a champion for employees, representing their concerns to senior management and at the same time working to increase employee contribution. And finally, HR should become an agent of continuous transformation, shaping processes and a culture that together improve an organization's capacity for change.
HRs activities must in some concrete way help the company better serve its customers or otherwise increase shareholders value. This calls for HR transformation. HR transformation changes both behavior and outputs. The changes must improve life for key stakeholders in ways that they are willing to pay for. Changing any single HR practice (staffing, training, appraisal, teamwork, and upward communication) does not create a transformation. Unless the entire array of HR practices collectively adds value for key stakeholders, transformation has not occurred. Transformation requires integrating the various HR practices and focusing them jointly on value-added agendas such as intangibles, customer
connection, organization capabilities, and individual abilities. HR cannot transform itself alone. Line managers have ultimate responsibility for both the processes and the outcomes of the company. It follows that they should lead the way in fully integrating HR into the company's real work. Indeed, to do so, they must become HR champions themselves. More important, they must hold HR accountable for delivering it.
Perhaps the hardest and most important challenge facing many companies in this era of flux is changing their culture. In helping to bring about a new culture, HR must follow a four-step process: First, it must define and clarify the concept of culture change.
Second, it must articulate why culture change is central to business success. Third, it must define a process for assessing the current culture and the desired new culture, as well as for measuring the gap between the two. And fourth, it must identify alternative approaches to creating culture change.
Critical Review
The article talks about the changing face of HR in an organization & the capabilities it offers to the business growth through its dynamic structure. In todays ever changing, fast paced, competitive global environment, the role of HR cannot be overemphasized. In the contemporary corporate setup, HR is viewed as a highly inefficient & bureaucratic wing of the organization which does nothing but routine administrative work related to employees. The article thus extols the benefits a pro-active HR department offers to an organization in a competitive environment. It also provides some guidelines on the directions & champions of this change. The article then goes on to describe new imperatives of HR in the organization. It gives examples to substantiate how HR departments role is expanding from just being an implementer & a watchdog of policies to a strategic level. At this level,
it takes active participation in strategic policy formulations with an eye on the long run. Dave, the author, also talks about how HR should be a strong champion of employee representations. At the same time he calls upon HR to ensure commitment of employees to deliver results. The HR role should be concentrated more on outcomes than on practices. But the practices shape the organisations outcomes. The process which an organisation undertakes has a lot of relevance to the outcome. Therefore, this opinion cannot sustain its credibility at all times. There are several examples which demonstrate that there are disparities between the functions of HR and the real work of the organisation. This is something which requires to be set straight first. There were several challenges listed out by the author which the companies face in the modern era. He also suggested solutions to meet those challenges. The article also brings out the fact that there is a need to bring a change in the mindset of the Line functions, which have come to regard HR as a routine administrative function. The need for HR professionals to adapt themselves and improve themselves in order to meet the demands of their new role as strategic partners in the organization has also been reiterated. The author gives examples of companies which have inculcated different ways to smoothen their HR practices. The advent of technology has helped the HR to gear up and lower down the costs of the organisation. The opinion of the author that HR should work closely with the line managers makes sense as the line managers can specifically guide the HR about the needs. This calls for HR becoming an integral part of the strategic team of an organisation. However, the article does not talk about the need for a change in the attitude of the employees towards HR as well. They are the main clients/customers of the HR and their view also needs to be considered. Currently, most employees regard HR as their adversaries who try to exploit them. Unless this mindset is changed, it is very difficult for the HR to move to a more strategic and significant role in the organization. Moreover, given the high level of competition and the single minded focus on profits that many organizations have today, it would be very difficult to convince an organization to divert its attention towards improving the HR department, even if it were to be highly lucrative in the long run. Overall, the article gives a well rounded perspective about the need for a change in the mandate of the HR department and the ways to go about achieving it. The need for a shift in mindset of both the HR professionals and the line managers has been reiterated. However, some other issues like the attitudes of the employees and the operability of some of the suggestions has not been considered.